Closings

Severe Weather

Milwaukee supervisors draw up plan to downsize county board

Lawmakers in Madison are considering a plan that would let voters decide to cut the Milwaukee County Board from full time to part time.

MILWAUKEE -

Two Milwaukee County supervisors said they will offer their own plan to downsize the county board.

In an open letter to Milwaukee County residents, supervisors Mark Borkowski and Steve Taylor said Tuesday that they will ask state lawmakers for the authority to downsize the board. The supervisors said they cannot act with approval from the Legislature.

Currently, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors has 18 members, representing approximately 53,000 residents each. Borkowski and Taylor would change that to 13 supervisors representing about 73,000 county residents each.

Once they get approval from state lawmakers, the supervisors said their plan would require a vote of the full county board.

The board in recent years has gone from 25 members to 19, and then to 18 in its most recent move. But the board has rejected plans to reduce its membership further, even as voters have approved it in a non-binding referendum.

However, Borkowski and Taylor said the board now has five new members from the last time a downsizing plan was considered, and that's important.

"It's a new day, a new era, and a new board," Borkowski said.

Taylor said he would like to have approval from state lawmakers in March and put a plan in front of county supervisors the same month. If the downsizing plan is approved, Taylor said it would begin with the 2016 elections.

Rep. Joe Sanfellipo, a former county supervisor now serving in the state Assembly, has drafted a bill to make the county board part-time.

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors is the state's only full-time county board.

Sanfellipo's bill would cut the supervisors' pay from $50,679 to $15,000 per year and would seek approval of that change from voters in a binding referendum.

Taylor and Borkowski said their plan would likely keep the current pay through the 2016 elections, and then consider changing the rate of pay after that.

The supervisors also said their plan would cut the county board's staff and personnel budget, as soon as 2014.

Currently, 17 supervisors have one staff member each, and the board's chairwoman has two staff members.

Copyright 2013 byWISN.comAll rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Comments

The views expressed are not those of this site, this station or its affiliated companies. By posting your comments you agree to accept our terms of use.

Forty years ago, one of the greatest boxing matches in history took place in an unlikely setting: the capital of the Philippines. Muhammad Ali's epic win over great rival Joe Frazier in 1975 became known as the "Thrilla in Manila."